Bedtime Story for Rotten Kids: Fish Tales
by kaIshekk
Summary: A little merman falls in love with a human prince. To stay with his prince forever, what will the little merman do? Ask the witch to transform the prince into a merman, of course. FujiTezu friendship. Sort of.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: A little merman falls in love with a human prince. To stay with his prince forever, what will the little merman do? Ask the witch to transform the prince into a merman, of course. FujiTezu friendship. Sort of.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Once upon a time, in a small but prosperous kingdom under the sea, lived Fuji Syusuke, a young male famed to be one of the loveliest mermen in the world. Every day he would sit in his little room, affectionately cuddling his beloved spiked coral and admiring his own tail. It was such a splendid tail—every passer-by would look at it longingly, unable to take their eyes off the wonderful sight. It seemed to change color when one looked at it from different angles, shimmering in shades of cerulean. It was not overly flashy or glittery, but once one set eyes on it, one sort of got addicted.

When Fuji Syusuke was a child, his mother often told him, "Syusuke, with such a tail like yours, if you are ever seen by those greedy humans, they will definitely capture you, cut off your beautiful tail with those huge saws and use it as expensive decoration in their houses. You don't want that, do you? Therefore, Syusuke, repeat after mommy: I will never, ever go onto The Surface."

"I will never, ever go onto The Surface." Young Fuji Syusuke would always nod obediently, a charming smile on his face.

"Good. Now, your brother Yuuta has a very plain tail, so he can go wherever he wants," his mother continued.

Fuji Yuuta, who sometimes eavesdropped on such conversations, would hide in a corner and weep, lamenting the fact that he had a dull brown tail instead of a magnificent multi-colored one like his brother's.

What Yuuta didn't know was that his brother had envied him ever since they were little. Fuji Syusuke had always wanted to go to The Surface, to see the sky, watch the clouds, and to find out himself whether humans are really as selfish as his elders told him. He wished that he did not possess such a special tail. True, it was nice to have others gasp and point in jealousy when they saw him, and it was also nice that he was very popular at school because his classmates would look at his tail to cheat on exams, but he still wished—wait, why did his classmates look at his tail to cheat on exams, you ask? Well, in fact it was because he had a large World Map right there on his tail. There were little spots indicating every mountain and lake, as well as detailed information on the capital of each country. The higher lands were depicted in the most incredible red color, the plains a soothing, tender green. Water was shown in cerulean blue, which matched Fuji's eyes. Fuji had no idea how he had grown such a strange tail, but it certainly came in handy—even Fuji himself used it to cheat on exams at times.

Perhaps it was because Fuji's tail was so unique that everyone he knew was almost stiflingly overprotective of him. His parents told him that most humans did not believe in the existence of mermen, and would immediately send weird machines down in the ocean to invade their peaceful little kingdom if they saw one. Fuji did not believe that it was so. He always dreamed of reaching the human world, partly due to the fact that his crazy scientist friend Inui had been to The Surface frequently said otherwise, and partly due to that the more one was told not to do something, the more one wanted to do it. No one besides Inui and Fuji's best friend Eiji knew about this secret desire. Eiji was actually in the same situation as Fuji: beautiful tail, attractive appearance, overprotective parents and siblings. The two sympathized with each other, and often dreamed about the human world together, wondering out loud what the mysterious land was like.

"Gakuto has been to The Surface so many times." Eiji was complaining one day as usual. "Everytime he comes back he tells me a lot of cool stuff. I do want to see it for myself. Why can't I go? It's not _my_ fault that I have a tail that exhibits movie posters."

Indeed, Eiji's tail was his biggest problem at hand. It was always overly colorful, showing posters of the latest films. At that particular moment the words "Kung Fu Panda" as well as a large picture of said panda were blatantly grinning up at them from his tail. Not even Eiji himself could be sure when his tail would change into a different movie poster. Sometimes it was not even a poster—there was the time that it somehow showed an election campaign flyer for Hillary Clinton, and the time that it exhibited a picture of Shirota Yu out of no particular reason. Since he was little, whenever others saw Eiji's tail change color, they would know that there was a new movie in the theaters and go to see it together. Even outgoing Eiji was finally tired of being stared at so much, which was probably why he found Fuji so agreeable as soon as they first met.

"I know it's not your fault, Eiji, but there's not much we can do about it. Let's go to Inui's house and ask him some more questions about humans," Fuji suggested.

Inui was the only merman the two friends knew who had a steady job in the human world. He worked for a Japanese game show called _Sasuke_, which involved muscular people taking on challenges that required a lot of strength, balance, speed and stamina, like climbing steep walls and jumping across extraordinarily wide gaps. Some of the challenges had underwater content, and the challenges were often held at sea so if the contestants fell from a high spot they would not hit the ground and die. The game show company needed someone to record the underwater happenings with a camcorder, as well as keep track of the time, and Inui, a natural in water, was hired. Inui had fitted a LED screen on his tail, enabling it to show numbers, letters and simple pictures. It was convenient for the show and, better, waterproof. Inui was a skilled actor, so only a rare few human beings knew of his true identity. Most thought that he was just a very good swimmer with a fake tail, pretending to be a merman and acting as the show's mascot. He was widely popular among children. Sometimes when people saw Inui, they would pat him on the shoulder and say: "You're wonderful, Mr. Inui. After all, everyone knows that there's no such thing as a merman. I admire you for being willing to go around wearing a fake tail just to fulfill the dreams of little kids. We won't know what to do without you, Mr. Inui."

Inui could only smile, a little sadly, in reply.

"But listening to Inui talk about humans is no fun. It will only make me want to see them even more," Eiji pouted.

"Maybe we can ask Inui to find a way for us. After all, Inui is so smart. He must be able to think up a plan so that we can elude our parents and reach The Surface," Fuji said thoughtfully. Though he wanted to see humans every bit as much as Eiji did, he appeared to be much calmer when he was around Eiji. It could be because Eiji was just too impatient.

"Cool! Yay, let's go right away," Eiji exclaimed, dragging Fuji happily towards Inui's coral reef castle. Having made quite a large amount of money on The Surface, Inui was rich enough to build a castle for himself, and one with a moat too. We have no idea why he wanted a moat even though he was already underwater.

Inui was in a small room busily investigating a glass of strange green liquid, but he was not a bit surprised by the visit of his two friends.

"I knew you would come," Inui stated simply, lifting his tail for the two to see. In large green letters, the tail stated, "Possibility of Fuji and Eiji coming here today: 100 percent. Possibility of me being chased by a shark today: 0 percent. Possibility of me choking on water today: 386 percent."

"Wow, Inui, you are really clever," Eiji cried in honest admiration at the correct prediction.

"Nah, I'm not clever. It's just that you're too stupid," Inui calmly replied. It was good that Eiji was already too used to his rudeness to feel hurt.

"Well, the reason you are here is to ask me to think up a way for you guys to go to The Surface, isn't it?" Inui went on, lifting his glasses as he spoke. Yes, he still wore glasses in the ocean, because if he didn't he would not be Inui.

"Yes. Inui, you really _are_ clever," Eiji gushed happily.

"I know," Inui nodded, not a bit embarrassed, "and I do have a plan. The fireworks show of the Neighboring Kingdom, held once every ten years, will take place two days from now. The royalty will come to the ocean on a ship to watch the fireworks. The wonderful thing about fireworks is that they are extremely noisy. That way, if you kill somebody with a gun, you can hide the sound of the shot in the midst of the noise of all the fireworks exploding. That way, people will not notice that you have shot someone. I believe this method was employed in one of Agatha Christie's novels."

"Wow, Inui, you are so smart," Eiji lavished Inui with praise.

"I am." Inui lifted his glasses yet again, trying to look modest.

"But we are not asking you how to kill people. This has nothing to do with what we want," Fuji pointed out.

"Ah, true. What I wanted to say was, your family will surely go to The Surface to watch the fireworks go off. Everything will be chaotic, and I believe that you will be able to reach The Surface without being seen, because there will be so much going on. The royal people from The Neighboring Kingdom will all be on the ship, so you can take a good look at them to see what humans look like. According to my data, Tezuka Kunimitsu, the prince of The Neighboring Kingdom, is quite handsome." As he spoke, he exhibited a rough picture of Tezuka's face on his LED-screen tail. Since he had only green-colored LED lights, Tezuka's face appeared to be green.

"Do all humans have green faces?" Eiji wondered.

"This is a LED screen," Fuji explained. "Not everyone has such a colorful tail like you, Eiji. Inui, how many pixels do you use for your tail?"

"I recently updated the software, so—" Inui began.

Realizing that the conversation was going in a boring direction that he didn't like, Eiji quickly jumped in to stop them from going on. "Aw, Fuji, let's go prepare already. We are going to The Surface in _two days_!"

"Okay, okay," Fuji smiled. "Very excited, aren't you, Eiji?"

Despite that he looked relatively composed, Fuji was just as excited as Eiji was. All night, his dreams were full of amazing fireworks, luxurious ships, and the green-faced Prince Tezuka.

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TBC. Thanks for reading:D Reviews are very welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

"Prince Tezuka, please put on your coat. You might catch your death of a cold on the ship," Oishi, faithful servant of the Tezuka family and the person closest to the prince, urged, worried as usual.

"Oishi, I'm already in seven layers of clothing. It is highly unlikely that I will catch a cold in this," Prince Tezuka replied expressionlessly.

"But the wind will be very strong on the ocean. We do not want you to—"

Prince Tezuka sighed. "Oishi, if I put on anymore clothes I will look like a bear. Why don't you go and prepare your own outfit?"

"Um… yes, prince!" Oishi cried nervously and disappeared.

"You don't have to call me prince," Prince Tezuka sighed again, but he doubted that his comment would be of any use.

"Prince, the wound on your shoulder—" All of a sudden, Oishi came dashing back into the room, looking even more concerned.

"I'm fine, Oishi," Prince Tezuka took a deep breath and spoke. "I'm seventeen, you know."

"I… I'm sorry, prince," Oishi stammered, and was out of sight in a flash again.

Prince Tezuka sighed to himself. He hated the fact that he was a prince. Because he was a prince, everyone was somehow in awe of him and constantly worried that they would offend him. Sometimes he would rather be born a normal person, with friends and schoolmates and maybe ordinary hobbies, like tennis. How could he not let his guard down with all these people pampering him? It took him all his determination and self-control to stay constantly on guard just like a good prince should.

"Prince Tezuka, it's time to board." Kaidoh, another attendant of Tezuka's, came to remind him. Kaidoh, who wore a bandanna even when he was working in the palace, was a diligent and hardworking person. Tezuka liked Kaidoh's company better than Oishi's, mainly because he didn't chatter so much and rarely fussed over Tezuka at all.

"Kaidoh, did you go to that game show _Sasuke_ again today?" Tezuka attempted to make small talk, seeing that Kaidoh looked visibly tired.

"Fshuu… yes. I am sorry, Prince Tezuka." Kaidoh blushed.

"I never said you shouldn't go." Tezuka sighed. He hated it that everyone was apologizing to him all the time, even if there was nothing to apologize about.

"Thank you, Prince Tezuka," Kaidoh murmured shamefacedly, gesturing at the ship. "Please board the ship this way, Prince Tezuka."

"Did you win in that game show?" Tezuka asked.

"Fshuu… no, I've lost again." Kaidoh hung his head in shame.

"Don't worry, as long as you don't let your guard down, you are sure to succeed," Tezuka assured.

"Thank you, Prince Tezuka."

Having finished his conversation with Kaidoh, Tezuka headed towards the large ship, nodding at all the people who were waving or bowing at him. It was indeed a cold day. The sun had already set, and a few stars were twinkling in the night sky. Tezuka hoped to himself that the fireworks, later, would not scare the stars away.

Ten years ago, when Tezuka was seven, there had been another fireworks display, though Tezuka did not remember much of it. Now, ten years had passed and Tezuka had become old enough to host this grand event in place of his elderly parents. Quite a lot had changed.

Tezuka stood at the head of the ship, leaning against the sidebars and watching the sky.

The night was beautiful. As Tezuka looked up at the sky, he vaguely felt the ship lurching to a start. The slow, rocking motion of the ship was soothing and felt rather nice.

_But Oishi will probably throw up,_ Tezuka noted to himself.

He was right. Oishi, who had been hanging around the prince waiting for any orders, suddenly muttered a quick "sorry Prince Tezuka I… I &(#" and disappeared from the deck.

"Useless sissy," Akutsu, the captain of the ship, commented. Besides being the captain of one of the royal family's ships, Akutsu had been a slave of the royal family since Tezuka was very young. Akutsu did the laundry, swept the floors and even planted cabbage in the castle garden. Having always been such an irreplaceable person in the palace, Akutsu had high expectations of himself and others. Sometimes, when he was not busy working, he would find a quiet place to ponder on the true meaning of life.

"Akutsu, you can't blame Oishi for being easily seasick," Tezuka reproached sternly. Oishi was his closest friend, after all.

"Sorry, Prince Tezuka," Akutsu scowled, and concentrated on steering the ship.

"Prince Tezuka!" Momo, another attendant of the prince's, came charging at them all of a sudden, smacking Tezuka on the back happily. "The fireworks display is starting right now. You can't see it all from here. Let's go to the starboard side."

"My… my back," Tezuka groaned, but was dragged away anyway. There was nothing he could do to teach Momo to be quieter or less violent, and had already given up trying. Momo was one of the only two in the palace who dared to act this impolitely towards the prince. The other one was Hiyoshi Wakashi who worked in the kitchen and made his living breeding cats and catching mice. Hiyoshi had often declared that he wanted to gekokujou Tezuka, and was usually severely beaten by the other people in the palace because _of course_ they loved their prince. This story has nothing to do with Hiyoshi Wakashi though, so we might as well forget about him.

--

The fireworks were certainly an amazing sight. Everyone stared in awe at the colorful spectacle in the velvety black sky. Momo actually forgot to eat. Akutsu, watching such a beautiful scene, started to ponder on the true meaning of life again.

As he was pondering on the true meaning of life, Akutsu came across a weird sight in the ocean. Since everyone was busy gazing at the fireworks, as the captain who had to pay attention to the ocean no matter what, he was the only one who noticed this at all.

Not far away from the ship, a fish tail stood above the surface.

"That can't be. Something must be wrong with my eyes," Akutsu decided out loud. He had always been confident in his eyesight, but that was just plain impossible. How could there be a fish tail standing there vertically above the surface?

"I need a checkup at the optometrist," Akutsu thought, rubbing his eyes. After all, the last time he had a checkup on his eyes was before he got his driver's license, and that was quite a long time ago.

To Akutsu's surprise, his wish was immediately granted. Many "E" shaped symbols were blatantly painted on the large fish tail. They opened towards different directions; the higher ones were larger, while the symbols at a lower position gradually decreased in size.

"Must be that God heard my wish." Akutsu nodded and started taking this eyesight test. "Left. Right. Up. Left. Can't see. Uh…right? Left. Down. Can't see. Don't know. Right. Right."

The following words appeared on the tail right away. "Akutsu-san, you got only half of the answers correct on your eyesight test. You need glasses."

"W-wait! Who are you? How do you know my name?" Akutsu screamed, suddenly noticing that while he was so busy taking his eyesight test, the ship had veered itself into the area that all smart fishermen avoided. The weather changed drastically, and the ship spun out of control from the strong gust. Akutsu, realizing his mistake, tried to steer the ship back on course, but could hardly grab hold of the steering wheel. All he could do before he went toppling into the water was to shout towards the royal family whom he had loyally served his whole life. "Hold on! Put on your lifejackets! Tie yourself to the—" Then he disappeared.

"Akutsu!" Tezuka called out the name of this loyal slave, but Akutsu could hear no more.

Having been a slave since forever, Akutsu had never got a chance to learn to swim. As soon as he fell into the raging ocean, his chances of survival were as nonexistent as the chances of survival for cabbage inside cabbage soup.

Struggling against the menacing waters, Akutsu pondered on the true meaning of his short life for the last time. As everything turned to darkness, he could only pray that his carelessness would not cause the people on the ship to suffer. He was, after all, a very loyal slave.

--

Akutsu's prayers went unanswered. The ship, without a reliable captain, bumped into several jagged rocks and was soon in great trouble. The area that all smart fishermen stayed away from was certainly notorious for a reason. It suddenly began pouring, and the waves had become so large, the wind so strong, that the ship could hardly stay upright. Hotheaded Momo tried to control the ship, but never having been properly trained on steering ships, could hardly keep a grip on the steering wheel and was thrown out, hitting his head on the safety bars of the ship and started bleeding madly.

"Fshuu… idiot," Kaidoh hissed, handing Momo his bandanna to stop his bleeding.

"Well, at least I'm not stupid enough to fall into the ocean," Momo commented as he thankfully accepted the bandanna. As he was doing so, the ship took another dangerous dip and the two watched with open mouths as their prince went crashing into the ocean.

"Uh, I'll take back my last comment," Momo said.

"Damn," Kaidoh cursed under his breath and went after their prince.

"Wait, I wanna go too," Momo, who loved to tag along at all times, cried.

"Stop your bleeding first, idiot," Kaidoh yelled, scanning the surface worriedly for any sign of his prince. Not finding any, he clambered over the guarding rails and threw himself into the water.

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TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.

To saya: Thanks for the review:) Glad you liked it.

To Elyon: Thanks for the review:D I'll update every week, I hope...

To kalista jia: Thanks for the review:D I'm sure Tezuka will be attractive in any color.


	3. Chapter 3

Akutsu woke up to discover that he was tied up on what seemed like an operation desk. Twisting his neck with much difficulty, he realized that he was in a small, dank room. This situation reminded him somewhat of a movie scene, though he had trouble recalling exactly which movie scene it was.

All he knew was that it was not the kind of movie he would want to be in.

Suddenly it came to him. "I remember now. It's _Saw_!" Then he congratulated himself for his quick memory.

When Akutsu was (not very eagerly) anticipating a voice from a tape to tell him "Jin, let's play a game" just like the movie _Saw_, much to his surprise, the door of the room swung open and a small figure appeared at his side. Looking up, Akutsu saw a little boy with a green headband that was way too large for him. It kept falling over the boy's big eyes, and he had to repeatedly adjust it.

Though he did not like to admit it, Akutsu thought that the boy looked incredibly adorable. He decided that the boy would probably be able to help him get out of wherever he was.

While he was thinking this, the boy smiled—such a lovely, innocent smile— and began to speak.

"From now on, Akutsu, you will be my slave."

Akutsu stared. It struck him that the boy had no feet. In place of where his feet should have been was a silver-green fish-like tail. There were many E's written all over it. Every one of these E's opened towards different directions.

Akutsu pondered where he had seen something like that before. And then he remembered.

"Aw damn," he cursed his bad luck.

--

Tezuka had never been in such a predicament before in his whole life. His current situation was even more troubling than the time he was three and rode his tricycle into the palace pond. After all, the palace pond wasn't really that deep.

Tezuka, having been tutored as a prince of all kinds of sports since childhood, was naturally skilled in swimming and should have had no trouble moving around in the ocean, yet considering that the water was freezing cold, his wet clothes weighed him down ("I _told_ Oishi I don't need any more clothes!"), he had lost his glasses and his recurring shoulder injury was hurting him, he found it impossible to swim at all.

Therefore, when Fuji, who had followed Inui's plan and came to The Surface to see fireworks, saw Tezuka for the first time, Tezuka's face was indeed green, just like the picture on the LED screen that Inui had shown Fuji. As a result, Fuji had no trouble recognizing the prince immediately.

"Inui's data really never lies," Fuji exclaimed in admiration as he swam towards the unconscious Tezuka, gazing at Tezuka's expressionless face in awe.

To him, it was love at first sight. Inui hadn't lied about Tezuka being very good-looking either, Fuji thought. He could stare at that face forever.

Of course, at this moment, everyone would be screaming that this was not the time to gaze at Tezuka's face. This was the time to perform CPR. Didn't Fuji know just how many people were waiting for him to do so?

Naturally he didn't know. Having grown up under the sea all his life, there was no possibility that Fuji could have learned CPR at all. Therefore, he naively concluded that the prince was just sleeping.

"I won't disturb him then," Fuji murmured, watching the motionless Tezuka tenderly, until a screaming Oishi broke the peaceful silence.

"Who are you? What are you doing to our prince? Give him back right now!" As soon as he realized that Tezuka had gone overboard, Oishi had leapt straight into the water to search for his prince. He was a good swimmer, and unburdened by too much wet clothes, shoulder injuries and the loss of glasses, he soon found Tezuka.

"Here," Fuji smiled, obligingly pushing Tezuka towards Oishi. "He's sleeping like a baby. Please don't wake him."

Oishi nodded in relief, and then it occurred to him that Tezuka couldn't have been sleeping under such circumstances. Oishi quickly reached for a pulse and, not finding one, began to scream and started swimming furiously towards their ship, holding Tezuka's head above the water in a perfect lifeguard stance.

Fuji watched them leave.

"He really is handsome," he sighed. "Too bad they had to leave so soon… but I'm sure there'll always be a next time."

--

Oishi and the drowned Tezuka were dragged aboard by the worried crew on the ship. Impatiently disregarding the towels and warm clothes that were handed to him, Oishi quickly stooped down to perform CPR. He was aware that since he had been vomiting minutes ago, Tezuka probably would not like receiving CPR from him, but he was too concerned about his prince to care, and it was not like anyone else on the ship knew CPR. He could only pray that Tezuka would not hate him for this.

Tezuka did not hate him. He did not even scold him, being too busy gasping for air and coughing up water as he became conscious. It did not help that Oishi was soon hugging him and sobbing in incoherent sentences like a maniac.

"Thank you, Oishi, for saving me," Tezuka managed to sputter between coughs. Even in such a state, he looked as solemn and as righteous as ever.

"Actually I was not the first to get to you, someone had already—" Oishi began, but stopped abruptly when he realized that he had left a living person in the raging ocean. Oishi had heard countless accounts of the first rescuer drowning, having used up all of his strength, while the drowning person was saved by a lifeguard. Oishi had been worried about his prince and his prince only, and not until now did he remember that another person was still there inside the water. The person had likely drowned already. It would be difficult for anyone to last this long down there.

Blaming himself for forgetting all about the other human being, the humanitarian Oishi dashed to the side of the ship and looked down. The dark waters looked menacing. Oishi's heart sank as he thought about the life he could have saved but forgotten. He did not know who Fuji was or how he got in the water in the first place. He didn't even know Fuji's gender—but he felt that he was entirely to blame for his death.

"Don't worry," Tezuka, who was drying his hair, stated calmly, "that was a merman. He's got a tail."

Oishi turned and gaped at Tezuka, who was now trying to wring the water out of his shirt. "Huh?"

"I saw," Tezuka went on calmly, "that he's got a tail with a picture of the world map on it. All the capitals are marked."

"But… but, Prince Tezuka—" Oishi stuttered. He thought that being deprived of oxygen too long must have damaged Tezuka's brain. _Oh dear, what if Prince Tezuka becomes retarded?_

"Prince Tezuka?"

"Yes?"

"How much is five times three?"

"Fifteen."

"How much is three plus seven?"

"Ten."

"What's your name?"

"Tezuka Kunimitsu."

"Whew, I guess Prince Tezuka is not retarded," Oishi concluded.

Tezuka knew himself that Oishi probably wouldn't believe him, but he knew that the peacefully smiling merman he saw was not a hallucination. He was positive that what he saw was definitely a merman, and a gorgeous one at that.

"I wonder if we will meet again," he wondered to himself.

As Tezuka was wondering this and Oishi was drying his hair with a towel, Momo came running towards them, looking terrified.

"Prince Tezuka, it's wonderful that you're all right," he exclaimed, smacking Tezuka on the back. He was always so violent.

Oishi asked, "Momo, isn't that on your head Kaidoh's bandanna?"

"Yeah, he lent it to me because I hurt my head," Momo explained, frowning. "Actually that's what I want to ask you guys about. About some twenty minutes ago Kaidoh had jumped into the water to look for you, Prince Tezuka. Had you seen him?"

"No," Tezuka replied, also frowning in worry. Kaidoh was already tired from attending that exhausting game show. If he was swept away from the ship by the current in the dark, the chances of their recovering him were extremely low.

Oishi helped Tezuka stand up. They moved slowly towards the side of the ship and looked down. Kaidoh was not to be seen anywhere.

"Kaidoh…" Tezuka muttered, biting his lip, mourning his loyal attendant. First Akutsu, and now Kaidoh—no wonder adults told him that the ocean was a dangerous place and was inhibited by all kinds of terrible creatures.

Tezuka had indeed met one of those creatures. But, he believed that this kind of creature must be a friend instead of a foe.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.

To saya: Thanks for the review:D "Hiyoshi somehow managed to shine in his two-sentences fame"- I love this sentence xD

To Elyon: Thanks for your lovely review:D


	4. Chapter 4

Kaidoh, searching frantically for his Prince Tezuka in the ocean, felt horribly exhausted. He could hardly see due to the darkness and heavy rain, and having been to that tiring game show _Sasuke_ earlier in the day, he had already spent most of his strength. Yet, he knew that his prince needed him and he could not die there, so he swam on with determination.

All in a sudden, yellow numbers appeared from nowhere in the dark and started to count down from fifty. Under it was a picture of a little white person who was walking. He started walking faster, and faster, and faster. Kaidoh quickly increased his swimming speed until it struck him that he wasn't crossing the street, and the numbers and the little traffic light shouldn't have been there. Unable to come up with a logical explanation, he could only head towards the lights confusedly.

The traffic lights turned into the shape of an arrow pointing towards the left. Kaidoh thought that it might tell him the whereabouts of Tezuka, and so agreeably followed the light.

The arrow suddenly pointed to another direction, and Kaidoh followed on.

Then the arrow pointed towards the right. Kaidoh's lungs were screaming "master, please stop, I'm tired," but Kaidoh still went on swimming.

"Sorry, you see, I am like you. I have my own master to protect," Kaidoh explained to his lungs apologetically.

"We understand," Kaidoh's lungs responded, feeling touched.

"Wait—what kind of person talks to his own lungs?" Kaidoh suddenly realized this and snapped back to reality. He knew that this was bad. Starting to apologize to his own lungs meant that he was probably losing consciousness already.

As he was almost going to give up, a pair of strong but gentle arms lifted him to the surface.

"Sorry about using all those arrows to lead you so far," a deep, sexy voice murmured beside him. "You see, where you were just swimming was the area that the Dangerous Merman Taiichi inhabits. Too many innocent people are attracted by his tail, kidnapped and forced to become his slave. I do not wish that you become one of them, and so led you away from him."

"You mean—our prince—" Kaidoh gasped, fearing that such a horrible fate would befall Tezuka. Prince Tezuka was such a noble, glorious man. It would be devastating if he were taken as a servant—

"Do not worry. Your people already found him, and he is all right now. They must be worried about you. Relax and just breathe, while I bring you back to shore," the deep voice assured him.

"Uh, thanks," Kaidoh whispered weakly, blinking open his eyes to see a large pair of glasses.

It occurred to him that he had seen something like this somewhere before.

"You are that… countdown guy from that…_Sasuke_ game show?" He spluttered.

"Yes. I am what they call Inui the Merman, the mascot of the show. And you, I believe, are Kaidoh Kaoru, the guy that had came to the competition seven times in a row and failed every single time."

Kaidoh had never felt so embarrassed in his life. And trust me, he was easily embarrassed.

"I—why do you know me?"

"It's not every day that you see someone who fails seven competitions in a row," Inui replied innocently.

"Oh."

"I can help you win, you know. I have designed a special training course for you. "

Kaidoh was beginning to feel dizzy. After all, meeting a strange person in the ocean who claimed that he could help you win and that he had designed a special training course for you isn't something that happened every day.

"Data never lies. Come to the shore to see me tomorrow. I promise that after a few weeks, you can beat even the champion of last year's game show."

Simple-minded Kaidoh now felt tempted to accept this offer. He really wanted to win that game show and prove his ability. "But… why do you want to help me?"

"Money. You should give me half of the prize money you win."

"—Oh."

"Aw, I was just joking," Inui lifted his glasses with his hand that was not supporting Kaidoh. "Work with me. I can collect data, and you can become stronger. Isn't that wonderful?"

"Um… okay, I'll be there," Kaidoh murmured and smiled. His smile was an extremely small one, but Inui still knew that it was a smile. He decided to jot this down on his waterproof notebook when he got home.

As Kaidoh climbed up to shore with Inui's help, he turned to look at his savior. "It's cold down there. Don't you want to come up? I'm sure that the people in the castle will—"

"Can't," Inui shrugged, "no feet."

"What? You mean… you are…" Kaidoh gaped. Like all the people who watched or participated in _Sasuke_, Kaidoh had believed that Inui was just a human who liked swimming and acted as the game show mascot for a living. He now realized that Inui had never seemed a bit tired swimming about in all those large waves, and that in the whole course of their conversation, Inui had been able to carry him so lithely that he had not let him dip under the surface once. Human beings could never have done that.

"Please do not tell anyone. I'll lose my job," Inui nodded, exhibited the LED screen on his tail that showed the numbers of the current exchange currency, and then disappeared into the waves.

Kaidoh watched him leave, wondering if he was hallucinating. He did not come back to reality until he heard Momo sobbing wildly somewhere, "But who will fight with me now that viper is dead?"

"Idiot, who did you say was dead? You wanna fight?" Kaidoh cursed in anger. But he could hardly stand up, let alone fight. It was lucky that Momo heard him cursing and came to his rescue, or he would have to crawl back to the castle.

--

"Listen, you must not leave this bed until you have recovered. Understood?" Oishi ordered sternly to Kaidoh. He was always stern to patients, because he did not want them to get any additional injuries.

"What if we want to go to the bathroom?" Momo, who was also in bed due to his head injuries, pointed out.

"Shut up," Oishi snapped impatiently, checking around to make sure that everything was under control before leaving the room.

"Hey," as soon as Oishi was gone, Kaidoh confronted Momo with a whisper. "Do me a favor. Do something to distract Oishi tomorrow afternoon for me, okay? I need to go somewhere."

Even though Momo and Kaidoh fought all the time, when it came to helping each other get rid of the attentive Oishi they worked wonderfully together. Besides, doing strange things to get Oishi's attention was always great fun in their monotonous palace life.

"Sure. Where're you going?"

"Fshuu… to the sea. To meet someone."

--

"Eiji, humans are indeed very beautiful." Fuji sighed blissfully to his best friend. Ever since he had returned from his trip to The Surface, the water surrounding him had been pink with little bubbly flowers.

"Aww, I wish I could have gone," Eiji, who had been unfortunately sick on the day of the fireworks display, said enviously. "I want to see Prince Tezuka too."

"No way, Eiji. He's _mine_," possessive Fuji declared. "Though I let his attendant take him away this time, next time I won't let go that easily."

"But Fuji, how do you plan to meet him again? We are mermen, and we do not walk on land."

"I'm asking the Witch of the Deep Sea to help me."

"You mean you want to exchange your voice for legs, like in the story _The Little Mermaid_? But Fuji, you have such a nice voice! And if you become a human, I'll have no one to play with. Gakuto is also saying that he's in love with a blue-haired knight in the Neighboring Kingdom of the Neighboring Kingdom, and that he wants to become a human. If both of you leave, I'll be sooo bored."

"Don't worry, Eiji," Fuji smiled mysteriously. "I don't know about Gakuto, but I'm not planning to become a human. I'm going to get the Witch of the Deep Sea to help me make a potion that would turn the prince into a merman. If she wants something in exchange for letting him grow a tail, she can always take _the prince's_ voice."

"Poor prince," Eiji commented. He had always known that his best friend was somewhat like this though, so he did not feel shocked. "Well, how do you plan to make him drink that potion?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I plan to talk to Taiichi about it."

"You mean Taiichi who always makes men his slaves by luring them into the water with his tail?"

"Yeah, him. I heard that Taiichi had found a new slave recently. He is muscular and has lovely white hair. I believe that after I talk to Taiichi, I'll soon find a way to get the prince to drink the potion."

"I see. That will work," Eiji nodded enthusiastically.

"Eiji, if you want, I'll kidnap another handsome human for you too. Now I remember that the prince's attendant isn't really all that bad-looking—"

"Don't, I won't know where to keep him," Eiji, who had to share a house with all those numerous family members and their pets, politely declined.

"That's okay. As soon as I kidnap Prince Tezuka, I'll be sure to show you first."

"Yay! Fuji, you're the best!"

--

Meanwhile, Tezuka, not knowing the horrible fate that was going to befall him, was still dealing with kingdom affairs in his castle.

"I wonder how the merman who saved me is doing…"

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome.

To kalista jia: Thanks for the review :D _Saw_ is scary. But then, I find everything scary…

To saya: Thanks for the review xDD

I'm going abroad tomorrow, so no updating next week. I'm REALLY REALLY EXCITED. :D I hope the plane won't crash…


	5. Chapter 5

"Oishi? Oishi! We're in trouble!" Momo came screaming into Oishi's room, breaking the peaceful silence that Oishi had been enjoying.

"What trouble? Did you break Her Majesty's vase when fighting with Kaidoh again?"

Momo shook his head, urging Oishi to make another guess.

"Did Taka-san mistake Prince Ryoma's cat for food and cooked it?"

"Wrong guess again," Momo shook his head once more.

"Well… I'll need a hint. How many words are there?"

Momo counted with his fingers. "Four."

"Four words? Can you tell me the first letter of every word?"

Momo looked thoughtful for a moment, and then they started playing the Guessing Game right there on the spot.

"Okay. The four words begin with P, T, H, and D."

"Um… let me see… Pirates take home dinner?"

Momo shook his head.

"Pets that have diseases? No, that can't be…"

Momo shook his head again.

"Ah, I get it—Pikachu tastes horribly delicious!"

Momo shook his head once more.

"Aw, I'm clueless. Maybe one more hint—" Oishi pleaded, when Kaidoh came barging into the room, looking around frantically.

"Prince Tezuka has disappeared!"

"Oh, so it was that… P, T, H, D… I see." Oishi nodded as he mulled it over. "That was a hard one, Momo… WHAT? Prince Tezuka has disappeared? And to think that we were playing the Guessing Game in such a major crisis!"

"You were playing _the Guessing Game_?" Kaidoh hissed, glaring disgustedly at Momo and Oishi.

"Yeah, we were. You shouldn't have gone about yelling the answer," Momo complained.

"But this is not a time to play the Guessing Game!" Oishi was almost in hysterics. "We must search for Prince Tezuka right away. When did you guys last see him?"

"He said that he wanted to go to the beach in the morning. I haven't heard from him afterwards," Momo shrugged.

"Then let's head for the beach right away," Oishi exclaimed, putting on a scarf, a jacket, a hat and boots to make sure that he would not catch a cold near the windy seaside.

"You forgot your jeans," Momo pointed out, as Oishi was all ready to dart out of the room. Kaidoh, hearing this, quickly ducked out of the room because he did not really want to see that sight.

"Come on, viper, we are all men. Don't be shy," Momo encouraged him.

"Shut up and get out of here," Oishi cursed and shoved Momo out of the room so he could find his jeans and put them on.

--

As soon as the party arrived at the beach, they noticed what looked like Tezuka's footprints leading straight to the ocean.

"This means that he had made a beeline for the ocean and never returned. But why would he do so? Prince Tezuka certainly isn't one to commit suicide," Momo frowned.

"Prince Tezuka had been murmuring about mermen a lot these few days," the palace cook, Kawamura Takashi, admitted reluctantly. "He might have been lured into the water by some sirens."

"Mermen?" Momo exclaimed in surprise. "But such creatures don't really exist, do they?"

"Well, the day Prince Tezuka went overboard, he did mention being saved by a merman," Oishi said with much hesitation, "but that's impossible, isn't it?"

Kaidoh, who was standing to the side, decided smartly to keep quiet about the fact that he had been seeing a merman daily for some time.

Oishi gazed at the dark, mysterious ocean and finally dropped to his knees. "Prince Tezuka, come back to meeee!"

The others didn't know whether to mourn Tezuka's disappearance or laugh at Oishi, so they remained expressionless.

--

Tezuka woke up and realized that he was on a large bed made of coral. Looking around, he was surprised to discover that he was underwater.

He wondered why he was still alive and able to breathe. Carefully, he checked his arms, relieved to discover that they had not become fins. He then sat up to look at his feet.

He almost screamed.

He had lost his precious legs. In place of them was a beautiful, blue fish tail. It was scaly and shimmered in the light.

The reasons that Tezuka did not scream when facing such shocking circumstances were that a) he was an extremely calm and contained person and b) he could not scream.

That's right, his voice had been taken away by the Witch of the Deep Sea.

"Ah, so you've waken up," a sudden voice cooed softly.

Tezuka looked up to see the merman that had saved his life days ago on the fireworks festival. The merman sat watching him with loving eyes.

Tezuka quickly decided to ask for help. Unable to speak, he tried to use body language to convey that he needed to go back to his kingdom and its people and that he wanted his voice back.

"I don't understand you," Fuji smiled on, head slightly tilted to one side. "Ah, you can use this." He handed Tezuka a pen and a piece of paper.

_Help me out of here_, Tezuka wrote down.

Fuji went on smiling.

"I'm afraid that's impossible, Prince Tezuka. From now on, you're _mine_."

That was how Tezuka Kunimitsu's nightmare began.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading!Reviews are very welcome.

To saya: Thanks for the review xD


	6. Chapter 6

Life in the sea was not as terrible as Tezuka had imagined. Yes, there was the issue that various friends of Fuji came to see him every day, gaping and pointing as if he was some zoo animal that they would like to pet, and there was also the issue that Tezuka missed having his voice, but apart from minor complications, Tezuka actually found himself—almost—having a good time. Seafood tasted wonderful, and Fuji was, for the most part, interesting company.

Still, Tezuka was worried about would happen to his kingdom in his absence. His elderly parents would be devastated over his disappearance, and surely Oishi would go crazy. Also, his people needed a prince. The little prince of their kingdom, Ryoma, was barely twelve. Asking him to take Tezuka's place just wouldn't do.

Tezuka sighed. He decided to do whatever he could to find somebody to help him out of this. Everyday, when Fuji was outside and locked Tezuka inside his room, Tezuka would look out of the window in search for someone who could be of assistance.

One day, he saw a righteous-looking merman with a cap and a yellow tail swim past his window. He looked like the serious type, and would probably help. Tezuka groped for a piece of paper and quickly printed the words _Help me_ on it.

The yellow-tailed merman saw this, and pulled out a piece of paper of his own, printing the word _Can't_.

_It won't be too much trouble. All I need is to send a note to a friend in the Neighboring Kingdom,_ Tezuka hastily wrote.

_I can't, because_ the yellow-tailed merman was halfway through his reply when another yellow-tailed merman appeared from behind him. It was a beautiful merman with a goddess-like smile.

"Sorry, Prince Tezuka. Sanada, like you, is kidnapped. He cannot speak either. I do not plan to let him go back to The Surface, so he won't be of any help to you. I'm sure you can find someone else," the smiling merman explained.

Tezuka looked at the green headband the smiling merman was wearing and was struck by recognition. Surely this must be the Dangerous Merman Taiichi who Fuji once mentioned. Fuji had said that Taiichi always wore a green headband.

_Are you Taiichi?_ He wrote.

"No, Taiichi has still got lots to learn. I'm his older brother, Yukimura Seiichi. Nice to meet you."

_Does your whole family wear green headbands?_ Tezuka scribbled on his paper.

"Most of us do. Your Kaidoh is also a distant relative of ours," Yukimura said pleasantly. Sanada looked very unhappy.

_Sorry about disturbing you. Please go on with your date. _Tezuka quickly wrote down.

"Sure. See you next time. Come on, Genichiro," Yukimura waved and led a troubled-looking Sanada away.

Tezuka was somewhat comforted to know that he was not the only one. As he was feeling considerably happier over this fact, another merman went by his window. Tezuka recognized him as Eiji, Fuji's best friend.

_If I ask him for help, he will probably tell Fuji_, Tezuka thought. But before he could hide his large "_Help me_" sign, Eiji had already noticed it with his excellent eyesight. He came swimming to the window to see what was wrong.

"Are you all right? Is it your shoulder?" Eiji asked concernedly. He remembered that Fuji had said that Prince Tezuka had shoulder injuries.

Tezuka studied Eiji. He seemed nice enough. Perhaps, if he was careful not to make him suspicious—

_Can you please send a note for me to my friend on The Surface? All I want is to tell him that I am all right. You do not need to tell Fuji about this,_ Tezuka wrote, choosing his words carefully.

Somehow, the more Tezuka tried not to look like he was hoping to escape, the more it looked like he did. Eiji sympathized with Tezuka—anyone who had to live in the same room as Fuji would probably be desperate to get away—but there was still the problem that Eiji was not allowed to go on The Surface.

"I can't," he said regretfully. "Mom won't let me go up there."

_Please, this is an emergency,_ Tezuka wrote. To show that he was literally begging, he drew a pair of large, hopeful puppy eyes to make a point.

Eiji could never resist large, hopeful puppy eyes. Besides, he had wanted to go up to The Surface since forever. This was just the justification he needed.

"Well, okay. Whom do you want me to bring the note to?"

_My friend named Oishi. He has a very unique hairstyle, you can't miss it,_ Tezuka wrote and drew a quick sketch of just how Oishi's head looked like to prove his point.

"I see." Eiji took the note that was handed him and went on his way. Tezuka watched him leave by the window, holding up a large piece of paper that read _Do not peek_.

Of course, as soon as Eiji rounded the corner, he opened the note regardless of Tezuka's warning. The message was short.

_Oishi, _

_I am having a good time here. Everyone is nice to me. Do not worry about me. As soon as I feel like it, I will return._

_Tezuka_

Eiji stared at the note in surprise. This Oishi, the friend of the prince's must be a worrier. Instead of the plea for help that Eiji had expected to see, Prince Tezuka had filled this note with assuring words so his friend would not worry about him.

Eiji did not know much about this prince, but he felt that Tezuka really must be a selfless person. Eiji decided that whatever the cost, he would fulfill the prince's wish and take the note to The Surface.

--

Gakuto was enthusiastic about the idea of a diversion. He set off firecrackers in the Kikumaru household, and while everyone was busy trying to catch the culprit and not succeeding, since Gakuto was so very nimble and fast, Eiji managed to elude his family members unnoticed and headed for The Surface.

This was the first time that Eiji had ever been up there. Everything was new to him. He could have watched the clouds for a whole week without feeling bored, and almost proceeded to do so, but he suddenly remembered that he was on a mission and started to swim towards the shore.

Eiji had been a bit worried that he would not able to find Oishi without sending e-mail or something beforehand, but he soon found that such a concern was pointless. Oishi had set up camp at the seashore, which enabled him to watch the ocean all day for any sight of his Prince Tezuka. The loyal attendant had resolved not to leave until Tezuka returned. Therefore, Eiji found Oishi without any difficulty and happily started swimming towards him.

Oishi had felt terrified of the sea after he had lost his prince, and had been constantly afraid that the waters would swallow someone else as well. As soon as he saw that somebody was bobbing up and down in the ocean, instinct took over and he leapt right into the water to the rescue.

Eiji, who did not need to be rescued by anybody, immediately came to the conclusion that someone was coming to have a race with him when he saw a person jump into the water and swimming towards him. Competitive by nature, Eiji gladly accepted the challenge and started swimming away from the shore as speedily as he could. It was impossible for an ordinary human being to catch up with a competitive merman, and Oishi almost lost sight of Eiji after mere seconds.

Oishi watched as Eiji drifted farther and farther from him, and marveled at the force of the current. It was almost magical that a person could move so great a distance in such little time.

"No, Syuichiro, this is not a time to marvel at the force of the current! Someone needs my help," Oishi scolded himself, and focused again on Eiji's dim figure. _This is a living person out there. If he is not saved soon, he will be gone forever like Prince Tezuka. AAAH! Come back to me, my dear Prince Tezuka!_

After those thoughts, Oishi shouted for Eiji to hold on and went on swimming towards the unknown depths of the ocean.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading. Reviews are very welcome!

To saya: Thanks for the review:)

To Acrobatic neko: Thanks for the review:D Oishi is very fun to write!


	7. Chapter 7

"Come on, smile. Why don't you smile?" Fuji prompted as he swam around Tezuka in graceful circles. The map on his glittering tail had dots indicating the capital of each country.

Tezuka could think of numerous reasons why he was not smiling. He had lost his voice, he had been kidnapped into the ocean, and he had been unwillingly changed into a merman—surely anyone would be justified not to smile after that. Besides, he rarely smiled even under normal circumstances anyway. But he could hardly reply to Fuji's question because, as stated above, he could not speak.

"Prince Tezuka, I've heard that you didn't speak much anyhow, so I figured it would be all right to take away your voice. You don't hate me for this, ne?" Fuji queried with his usual smile.

Tezuka wanted to point out that there were a thousand differences between not speaking much and not being able to speak at all. One could use the toilet only a few times a day, but it didn't mean that one could get by without ever using the toilet, did it? Still, Tezuka did not reply, because, again, he could not speak.

"It's nice with you here, you know. I'm glad you're here to keep me company," Fuji murmured, pulling absent-mindedly at the loose cotton on the cushion he was holding in mild embarrassment.

Tezuka looked at Fuji's strangely sad profile, and felt his heart soften.

He often felt lonely too, even with all those people around him.

No one had ever really understood him. Everyone at the palace looked up to him and was completely loyal to him, but there were always things that they could never understand. Even Oishi, who knew Tezuka best, never knew most of the things that Tezuka thought about.

Sometimes Tezuka would wonder if that really was the life he wanted. He had servants, expensive clothes, and anything he desired to eat. But he did not have someone that he could really talk to. Was this the life he wanted?

He started to think that he could sort of understand why he was kidnapped into the ocean.

--

Oishi looked around nervously. It had not been long, probably a minute at most, but he had already lost sight of the person he wanted to save.

"Might be a water bogey," Oishi thought and shuddered. In their kingdom, common belief had it that water bogies would come to the ocean and grab people to take their place in July.

It was July.

The "person" he saw could be a water bogey, luring him into the ocean to take his life. It certainly explained Oishi's current situation.

Oishi felt like he had heard his own death sentence being announced as he turned back to realize that he could no longer see the shoreline. He was exhausted from having swum this far. There was no way he could make it back. In fact, he could hardly distinguish which way was "back".

As he began to panic, the red-haired water bogey (Oishi had decided that it must be a water bogey and there was no way he would change his mind now) glided past him. Eiji had come back to ask whether the race was over.

Oishi cried out, struggling to keep as far away from Eiji as possible, "Please let me go! I've never done anything bad in my life, water bogey-san!"

"Water bogey? Where? Where?" Eiji exclaimed in fright and quickly swam away. A water bogey! How exciting! He made a mental plan to tell Gakuto all about meeting a water bogey as soon as he got home.

Oishi was confused at the fact that the water bogey seemed to have shirked in fright as soon as he started screaming, but even without the water bogey he was still in trouble. He started imagining various ways he was going to die. He could slowly drown as all his strength left him, his desperate calls for help unheard. He could be eaten by sharks or stung by jellyfish. He could be taken away by another water bogey, or he could be killed by a tsunami. Or maybe grinded to death by a Loch Ness monster. None of these seemed like a nice way to die.

Eiji, meanwhile, was well on his way home to tell Gakuto about his adventures on The Surface. All of a sudden it struck him, again, that he was on a mission. It also struck him that the strange human who was screaming about water bogies looked suspiciously like Prince Tezuka's friend and appointed recipient of his note.

Eiji quickly swam back to The Surface. Oishi was still hanging onto life—with survival instinct tactics, but it was impossible for him to win this battle against the waves. Suddenly remembering that humans were unable to breathe underwater—poor them!—Eiji swam over and brought Oishi back to the surface.

It was the first time that Eiji had seen any human besides Prince Tezuka up this close. He studied Oishi with interest. _This one looks nothing like Prince Tezuka, but he looks nice too…_ Eiji found himself wondering just how all the other humans looked like.

If Oishi had been unconscious, Eiji, having never heard of CPR, would be unable to do anything to help him. Fortunately Oishi was still breathing and very much conscious. Blinking the salty water out of his eyes, Oishi found himself looking into the face of the water bogey he had previously thought he had gotten rid of.

Feeling doomed, Oishi could only accept his fate. Still, he couldn't help thinking that this boy in front of him looked nothing like a water bogey. Did water bogies have band-aids on their cheeks? Did water bogies have those weird tails with movie posters on them? Weren't water bogies supposed to be hideous? This one certainly wasn't hideous. In fact, he was extremely cute—perhaps water bogies came in all shapes and sizes. Like humans.

Oishi decided that even if this was not a water bogey, it could not be a human being either. Human beings did not have dry hair when they had just surfaced from water.

_What can he be then? Sea otter? Sea lion? Sea snake? Sea iPod? No, he can't be an iPod. Syuichiro, you have swallowed too much water and lost your senses._

"Are you a friend of Prince Tezuka?" Eiji began carefully.

Oishi immediately forgot about all the above musings. He couldn't care less what species Eiji was as long as he knew about Prince Tezuka. He had, despite putting on a hopeful façade, thought that Tezuka had been long dead, and news that his prince was still alive and (sort of) well almost brought tears of joy to his eyes. He quickly nodded, still too out-of-breath to speak in sentences, and eagerly waited for the reply.

"He wants me to give this to you," Eiji pulled out the note, which Oishi excitedly read.

"AAAH! Prince Tezuka must be in trouble," Oishi coughed out as he read on. "If he was having a wonderful time, he would not tell me to, so he would not make me envious. He must be under great distress, but not wanting me to worry, pretended that he was fine."

Eiji listened to his line of thought and decided that Oishi certainly did understand Tezuka well.

"This won't do. I must rescue him," Oishi declared, took a deep breath and prepared to dive.

"No way. That will kill you," Eiji dragged him back up. "We live at a really deep place. You won't be able to reach it. Don't worry, I know Fuji well. Even though he can be sadistic at times, I'm sure he will treat your Prince Tezuka nicely."

"Oh." Oishi looked regretful.

Eiji patted him assuringly, and prepared to take his leave. He knew that his parents would probably murder him when he got home, but he still had to go back. "Well then, zannen munen, matta—" He was only half-finished when Oishi cried, "No! I'll die if you leave me here!"

Eiji looked around. Land was nowhere in sight. He remembered that humans were not accustomed to swimming long distances, so he held out his hand to Oishi.

"Come on, I'll bring you back to your kingdom."

Under the setting sun, the human and the merman swam happily towards the shore. Eiji, who was always curious, fired off questions about humans, which Oishi gladly answered. Oishi in turn fired off questions about Tezuka's current situation, and Eiji promised him several times that he would not let any harm befall Tezuka. Oishi had been pretty shocked that such a species like mermen actually existed, but Eiji obviously couldn't have been anything else, and so Oishi decided that since there were water bogies, the fact that there were mermen should not be a surprise. By the time they reached the shore a few hours later, they had become fast friends and were swimming in Synchro.

"Thanks for the—"Oishi began when he noticed a big problem. As you can see, they had not been really that far from Oishi's kingdom in the first place, so why did it take them so many hours to reach land? The truth was, since it was Eiji's first time on The Surface, he had no idea which direction he was supposed to go and had brought Oishi to the Neighboring Kingdom of the Neighboring Kingdom.

"This is not my kingdom," Oishi wept.

"Sorry," Eiji apologized shamefacedly.

Then they heard a very deep and very sexy voice in a Kansai accent. "Gakuto? Is that you?"

They looked up to see a blue-haired man with glasses. Eiji realized that this must be the sexy blue-haired knight Gakuto had told him about.

"Ah, sorry, wrong person. I thought you were Gakuto because you both have red hair," Oshitari explained. He then looked at Oishi. "You are Oishi from the Neighboring Kingdom, right? Come on up and dry yourself. Ootori will drive you back to your kingdom."

"Thanks," Oishi murmured, rather surprised that Oshitari looked all unfazed at seeing a merman. He did not know that Oshitari had been actually dating one.

"You are Eiji, aren't you?" Oshitari added. "Tell Gakuto that I miss him."

"Okay. Bye-bye then!" Eiji grinned and disappeared into the sea with a parting wave of his tail.

Oishi, shivering, was pulled ashore and made comfy by Ootori and various other people Oshitari had commanded to help. Recalling the events that happened that day, he almost believed that it must be a dream. But he had the note from Tezuka in his very handwriting, so it couldn't have been a dream.

Eiji had said that he lived in a strict family, so it would be hard for him to ever come visit again. Chances are that he would never come visit again.

But, Oishi still believed that they would meet again. Someday.

* * *

TBC. Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome:)


	8. Chapter 8

Night fell. Staring at the streetlamps outside the Fuji household, Tezuka felt extremely lonely.

He had gradually gotten used to spending time with his kidnapper, the merman Fuji. During the past few days, Fuji's parents heard the growing news of Eiji's adventure on The Surface and were worried that Fuji would also try to go to The Surface under the influence of his naughty best friend, and therefore kept Fuji in confinement most of the time. As a result, Fuji spent most of his spare time chatting with Tezuka, and Tezuka's writing speed had increased tremendously.

Unfortunately, Tezuka still felt lonely that particular night, because Fuji had gone out shopping with his family (who did not yet know about Tezuka's existence and probably never would). Alone, Tezuka could only kill time thinking about his life underwater.

Even though he could still not fully forgive Fuji for kidnapping him into the ocean, he somehow did not blame him much either, for he felt that Fuji was actually a lonely merman that craved to be understood.

Tezuka believed that if he hung around for long enough, he would be able to understand Fuji.

As he was pondering this, Tezuka noticed a mermaid swim past his window. He recognized her as Ryuuzaki Sumire, the Witch of the Deep Sea, who Fuji had told him about. He had never seen her before, but he knew who she was at first sight because Fuji had specifically pointed out that Ryuuzaki Sumire had a large McDonanld's label on her tail. This mermaid had a large McDonald's label on her tail, and therefore she could be nobody but Ryuuzaki Sumire.

Though Tezuka knew that this witch must have tons of magical powers, it occurred to him that her powers were unable to help alter her aging appearance. Tezuka could see clearly all the deep lines on her face and her graying hair. She was, after all, a thousand years old. As Tezuka looked on the witch started picking her nose. Tezuka found this disturbing and closed the shutters.

He told Fuji about this when Fuji returned. Well, he did not actually _tell _him, but wrote it down on the little whiteboard that Fuji had especially provided him so that they wouldn't waste too much paper chatting.

_I saw Ryuuzaki Sumire. She really has a strange tail,_ he wrote.

"Oh, did you?" Fuji asked interestedly. "She looks surprisingly young, doesn't she? One can hardly believe that with her beauty she is actually a thousand years old."

_But she does look like she is a thousand years old._ Tezuka frowned and wrote on.

"Oh?" Fuji started frowning too. "Then you must have seen the wrong person. Ryuuzaki Sumire is considered one of the most beautiful females in our kingdom."

_But she really has a McDonanld's label on her tail, _Tezuka stated, knowing that he couldn't be wrong, because Tezuka is never wrong.

Fuji began to look more and more interested. "Now that's weird. Did you take a picture?"

_No._ Tezuka was just too righteous to do that.

"That's all right. I have an idea," Fuji declared. He was the kind of merman that would get to the bottom of everything when his curiosity was aroused, probably due to influence from Eiji. Right now his curiosity was aroused.

_An idea?_

"There's a security camera right in front of my house. I'll go get the security guard and ask for the videorecording."

So he did. Within two minutes he was back with a videotape, making Tezuka wonder just how Fuji was able to wheedle the security guard into handing him such a thing in so little time. In no time, Tezuka spotted the old witch he had seen on the television screen, and pointed at her to get Fuji's attention.

"Can't be." Fuji shook his head. "Too old."

_She IS this old. See? The MacDonald's label is right here._

"Aw, you're right," Fuji exclaimed and stood up in excitement. "The Witch of the Deep Sea always pretends to be so beautiful. No wonder she only dares to wear no make-up in dark streets. Now this is quite a discovery, Prince Tezuka. We ought to blackmail her."

_Blackmail?_

"Of course. I'll give you her address. Go visit her with this videotape, and make her give your voice back. That way, you won't need to write anymore and we can chat faster," Fuji explained, happy at his own brilliant idea. Of course, Fuji wanted to tag along as well, but he was under confinement and his parents would ground him for another year if they discovered him missing.

Which was how, the next day, Tezuka found himself in front of the cottage of Ryuuzaki Sumire, a videotape in his hand.

Ryuuzaki Sumire came waltzing out of the door, dressed seductively and gazing at Tezuka just as seductively under her heavy makeup. She looked nothing like the old woman Tezuka had seen the day before. Still, the tail was the same.

"Hi, dear. What do you want?"

_I want you to see this,_ Tezuka wrote and held out his videotape.

"You want to watch a video with me? Oh, that's so sweet of you. Do come in. I hope it's not a very scary movie though; I'll be so frightened! Come in, come in."

Tezuka felt disgusted at the way this witch was acting. Luckily, she did not bother to put on an act anymore as soon as she saw the contents of Tezuka's videotape. Somehow, without the faked sweet voice and sheep eyes, she became immediately much less attractive, though to Tezuka also less disgusting.

"Very well. Blackmail, isn't it? Okay, what do you want then?" Ryuuzaki Sumire asked, looking as if she was boiling inside.

_I want my voice—_ Tezuka began writing, but paused there.

Was his voice the only thing he wanted back? Didn't he want to go back to his luxurious life of a prince?

Life underwater with Fuji was not half as extravagant as life in the palace. He did not have people fussing over him every moment, always ready to answer to his command. He did not have expensive clothes, but he did have a lovely tail—and he did have Fuji, which was certainly more interesting company than he had ever had as a prince. As a prince, people were afraid of him, never able to speak their mind. As a captive in the ocean, he met a friend who would tell him everything. Together, they make two less lonely people. Or a less lonely person and a less lonely merman.

He had thought that he would go back to his kingdom as soon as he had the chance. Now he realized that life in the ocean really wasn't any worse than what he had as a prince. Except for the fact that he had lost his voice (and he was going to get it back anyway), there was really nothing wrong with staying down here.

"State your wishes now, you ninny," Ryuuzaki Sumire urged impatiently. Not caring about her image in front of Tezuka anymore, she started picking her nose again.

Tezuka thought about all the days he had spent with Fuji. It was completely different from what he was used to, and Fuji was completely different from everyone he had known. There was the one time that Fuji, not wanting Tezuka to be alone in being unable to speak, taped up his own mouth and chatted with Tezuka by writing, and there was also the time that Fuji learned that a few neighborhood kids laughed at Yuuta, so he took Tezuka along and stole the front door from those kids' house. These were experiences that Tezuka could never imagine as a prince.

But the kingdom needed a prince. After all, he was Tezuka Kunimits and Tezuka never shirked his responsibilities.

"_Please give me my voice back, and return me to my kingdom._"

"With your tail?"

"_Without my tail, please. I want my legs back._"

"Whatever. Come here," Ryuuzaki Sumire said as she chewed on betel nuts.

Tezuka nodded. He then realized that he did not even get a chance to say a proper goodbye to Fuji, but there was no turning back now.

His life as a merman was coming to an end.

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TBC. Thanks for reading!:) Reviews are very welcome. To saya: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you found it amusing. To Acrobatic Neko： Yes, they can. They also have cell phones and digital cameras, though I have no idea how they work...must be waterproof xD I think both are equally sadistic:) Thanks for the review! (I can't get the Enter key to work somehow )


	9. Chapter 9

Ryuuzaki Sumire uttered some queer phrases that Tezuka decided must be spells. She swam in a few circles around Tezuka, making him dizzy, and then sprinkled a handful of golden dust over him. Tezuka immediately lost consciousness. It is said that when one faints, one sees stars. In Tezuka's case, because he was in the ocean, all he saw were starfish. They were all pink like Patrick Stars on SpongeBob SquarePants.

He opened his eyes to find himself lying on his comfortable bed in his room. His faithful followers were sitting around playing Monopoly on the floor, waiting for him to wake up. As soon as Oishi saw that Tezuka had come to, he threw himself over Tezuka and started sobbing uncontrollably, which Tezuka found mildly annoying but also kind of touching.

"I'm fine. Go back to work." Tezuka said, because of the stern, stoic prince that he was. Kaidoh and Momo nodded and quickly went back to their respective positions, though Oishi still hung about with an air of concern.

Tezuka was pleased to find that his voice had come back. Everything seemed the same to him—he had his feet, he had no tail, and all his followers seemed just like what they had always been.

It was as if his meeting with Fuji had never happened. But then he saw the videotape clutched tightly in one hand, and he knew that it had all really happened.

Usually, it would have been a pearl or scale or some romantic object that would make the person realize "wow, so it was not a dream," but in Tezuka's case it had to be a videotape. He was never a romantic person anyway, and thought that the strange videotape could represent his memories of the strange friendship better than any pearl.

"Oishi, did you get my note?"

"Yes," Oishi cried and started weeping again. "I kept that note with me at all times, Prince Tezuka."

"Kikumaru is forbidden to leave his house at all by his family for delivering my message."

"Is he?" Oishi shrieked in worry. "How do we pay him back then?"

Tezuka shook his head. "I guess we cannot pay him back. We won't ever meet again, probably. Humans and mermen do not cross paths, after all."

Was he right? Of course not.

--

"Kaidoh! Kaidoh! Kaidoh!" Ecstatic fans as well as competitors of the game show _Sasuke_ from every country were enthusiastically shouting the name of the newest winner of the competition. Kaidoh Kaoru walked down shyly, waving at his fans with a slightly embarrassed air.

A girl with a microphone approached Kaidoh. "Kaidoh-san, how does it feel to win after failing seven times? Is there anything you want to say?"

"I want to thank a person," Kaidoh murmured, blushing. He was still not used to being stared at by so many people. "Fshuu… actually, he is not a person. He's a—"

Inui, holding a video camera underneath him in the water, made a slight gesture that meant "if you give away my identity, I'll take off your pants".

"What is he? Come on, tell us," the girl with the microphone urged, seeing that Kaidoh had stopped in mid-sentence.

"Actually, he is not a person. Fshuu… he's an angel."

--

What happened to all the others then?

Tezuka married Atobe, the prince of the Neighboring Kingdom of the Neighboring Kingdom, due to political reasons. The two kingdoms formed an alliance because of this marriage. Tezuka and Atobe spent their lives happily in their respective castles and never met each other. As you can see, political marriages are very difficult to understand.

Kaidoh and Momo fought all day long, as usual, and even more when they were competing on Sasuke, thanks to Kaidoh's influence on Momo. Lately, when the _Sasuke—duo version_ came out, they even joined together as a team. Inui met with them everyday to help them train for the upcoming challenges.

Ryoma, the little prince in Tezuka's kingdom, soon grew taller by eating Kawamura's specially-made cuisine. Kawamura and Ryoma often spent time together coming up with different recipes for cat food in the palace kitchen.

Sanada was still kept in Yukimura's house as a captive. The Rikkai Kingdom, having lost their prince, let their younger prince, Kirihara, take over Sanada's place. Kirihara, discovering that he was the prince and therefore could set all the rules, held nation-wide rock concerts every day. The kingdom became a very prosperous and cheerful place.

The Dangerous Merman Taiichi fell in love with Akutsu Jin, his newest slave. As a result, he never returned to The Surface to kidnap humans anymore. Traveling in the waters became significantly safer. The fishermen had Akutsu to thank for this, but no one ever saw Akutsu again.

Ryuuzaki Sumire still went on pretending that she was beautiful and young, making various young and foolish mermen fall for her.

Oishi worried about many things all day, just as he always had. He never met Eiji again, but they often chatted on IM and were very happy together. In Eiji's circle of friends, asking the Witch of the Deep Sea to change them into humans seemed to have become sort of a trend. For example, Gakuto, who was often beaten up by his father for no reason, asked Ryuuzaki Sumire to take off his tail and give him legs. His wish was granted, and he gladly went to live with Oshitari, the sexy blue-haired knight of the Neighboring Kingdom of the Neighboring Kingdom. Gakuto was very satisfied with his legs because he could finally do street dance. Eiji kept in contact with him. He hoped that someday he could also ask Ryuuzaki Sumire to give him legs, so that he could go ashore to visit Gakuto and Oishi.

Of course, in Eiji's circle of friends, there was a most important merman that we should not forget.

--

In the dark, at the beach of The Neighboring Kingdom, a smiling beauty appeared on shore. He looked no different from any beautiful person, except that he had a tail, a lovely tail with the World Map on it.

He pulled down the zipper on his tail, revealing smooth, slim legs.

"Prince Tezuka, here I come," he said, and then smiled.

**The End.**

* * *

So it ends xD Thanks for reading! Reviews are very welcome. Now I realize that I can't write anything even remotely close to romance. ..:(

To Paffu: Thanks for the review! I like him better when he's sadistic xD

To saya: Thanks for the review:D Yay, you got it right xD

Last but not least, thank you **mysticlegend11** for beta-ing for me. I'm horrible at those thank-you speeches because however I write it it comes out cheesy. But you do know that I' really grateful, right? Right? :D


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